Sushree Mohanty
A special court of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Panchkula sentenced five-years of prison time to Rajeev Kumar Gupta, an agricultural ministry accounts official, who was charged for asking for ₹55,000 bribe from a legal practitioner belonging to the Punjab and Haryana high court. Gupta was charged under sections 7, 13 (1) (d) read with 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and was sentenced to five years and four years of imprisonment, which will run simultaneously.
He will likewise pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh. Gupta had demanded 55,000 from Ranjana Shahi, the complainant, for clearing her expenses of Rs.25 lakh for addressing the Union Ministry of agribusiness and Farmers welfare assistance. Expressing that the accused did not deserve any mercy; the court stated that the official’s constrained directions forced Ranjana Shahi, who protected the government authority in court, to run from column to post to get their lawful fees delivered.
“Convict has been discovered indulging in criminal unfortunate conduct by requesting bribe from Senior Panel Counsel, who was representing the government office … and from there on was found in the act while taking an amount of Rs 55,000 as bribe in the presence of three witnesses”, the court said.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Gupta was posted as a senior records official with the Pay and Account Office (Plant Protection and Miscellaneous) of the Union Ministry of Agriculture in Faridabad. Shahi was a senior board counsel for the Union of India in the high court and was appointed as a representative for the Ministry of Agriculture’s division of agribusiness, collaboration and farmer’s welfare assistance, Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, etc. Per her service, an amount of around Rs.25 lakh had to be dispensed to her as a part of her legal fees.
Despite an assent order issued by the government, Gupta didn’t get her charges cleared and demanded that Shahi must pay him a bribe of 8% of the total authorized fees of ₹6.8 lakh. A plan was hatched and Gupta was caught in the act while accepting the bribe of ₹55,000 from Ranjana Shahi. Following this, a First Information Report was documented by the Bureau in Chandigarh.
“Further whenever it is established that the officer accepted any other bribes, Section 20 of the PC Act would be attracted and it will be assumed that accused acknowledged the bribe as a motivation for doing or declining to do any act which is referenced in Section 7 of the Act,” the copy of the judgment stated and convicted Gupta in the matter.